1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing plastic bags which includes a bag shield.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Plastic bags for customer use and convenience are widely used in many types of retail stores and are commonly provided in grocery stores and supermarkets. Plastic bags of the type to which the present invention is directed are often used in a grocery store as a means to hold produce items, e.g., fruits and vegetables, and may also be used to hold poultry, meat, seafood, and bakery products. The use of such bags facilitates the check out process, since the bags provide a means for segregating the various items purchased from one another.
Plastic bags have sometimes been manufactured in a continuous roll with a perforation between the adjacent bags. A bag is removed from such a roll by exerting force to tear a bag from the roll along a perforation. Once the bag has been removed, the customer is faced with the sometimes difficult task of opening the bag.
It is also known in the art to manufacture and assemble plastic bags into a bag stack, which are then dispensed from an appropriate assembly. Such a stack of bags includes a disposable upper portion which is detachably connected to a lower portion containing the plastic bags by making perforations between the upper portion and the lower portion. When a customer desires to use a plastic bag, the customer pulls on the outermost bag in the stack and tears it away from the upper disposable portion at the perforation.
The bag stacks described in the immediately preceding paragraph are mounted on dispensing assemblies, e.g., bag stands, in one of two ways. One way of mounting has been to attach a plastic hanger, generally referred to as a "header," to the disposable upper portions of the pack of plastic bags. The header includes one or more upper openings through which a supporting member of the bag stand extends to support the header pack of plastic bags. A second way of mounting is to make a pair of circular holes through the disposable upper portion of the bag stack and to hang or suspend the bag stack by inserting a supporting member through each of the holes. This type of plastic bag stack is commonly referred to as a "headerless" stack. Several packs of header bags or headerless bags will typically be hung or supported on the bag stand at any one time.
In many instances, the manufacture of a bag stack includes subjecting the material from which the bags are fabricated to what is known as a "Corona treatment." This Corona treatment enables the retail outlet or supermarket to have information printed on the bags using well-known techniques. The information which is printed on the bags is known in the industry as the "billboard effect."
Several problems have existed in the industry with respect to the dispensing of plastic bags from a bag stack. For example, difficulty has been encountered in the removal of only one bag from the bag stack at a time, and once removed, difficulty has also been encountered in opening the removed bag. Also, the removal of bags from a bag stack has interfered with the "billboard effect" of the remaining bags in the stack. These and other shortcomings of the prior art have been overcome by the apparatus for dispensing plastic bags of the present invention.